I WRITE IN COFFEE SHOPS A LOT.

Tag Archives: cold

12:30 p.m. To say I’m starting later than I intended is an insult to the entire concept of time. Why am I so bad at getting out of the house? But, I’m here now. There’s that, I suppose.

12:32 p.m. “here” is Starbucks, btw. And I’m not leaving for a long, long time.

12:46 p.m. those big headphones that cover the whole ear–the sort DJs wear–seem to be becoming more and more of a thing. I understand the listening experience is greatly improved and all, but they seem to me like they’d just be one more pain-in-the-ass thing to carry around.

12:52 p.m. I use a nickel to unscrew the battery compartment on my keyboard. I just absent-mindedly put it down on the table, then glanced at it moment later and saw it’s standing on its edge. Have nickels gotten thicker? The only other explanation is ghosts.

1:17 p.m. Just realized the paramedics are here. Dimly appalled that there was, apparently, some sort of emergency and I didn’t notice. No one seems to be moving very fast, though. They’re taking a girl’s blood pressure. I’m guessing she fainted.

1:25 p.m. Getting a refill. Recently downloaded the Starbucks app to my phone and I just remembered I can use it to pay with my Starbucks card. Wish I’d thought of it when I got the original cup of coffee, as that would be more momentous and all, but still: exciting!

1:26 p.m. A thing I really wish: that this Starbucks kept napkins by the cash registers so that when I take the lid off my cup for them to refill, I could wipe away all the drops of coffee clinging to the lid. I mean, obviously this would not be in my top three wishes, or even my top 100, but still.

1:28 p.m. Barista did not seem to understand how exciting it was that I was using the phone app for the first time. She’s the only one here I really don’t like much.

1:33 p.m. and when she gave me my coffee, there were grounds floating on top. Great.

1:50 p.m. I have an insanely horrible itch on the bottom of my foot. If I take off my shoe and scratch it, I’ll feel like a huge weirdo if anyone notices. But… I don’t think I have a choice.

1:51 pretty sure I made it look like I was just retying my shoe.

1:54 p.m. Have not gotten nearly as much writing done as I should have by now. Am going to set my timer and see how much I can write in 30 minutes. Go!

2:50 p.m. Ended up doing 45 minutes straight. 1300 words. Not my best but I’ve done worse. To reach my day’s goal I just have to do that… Five more times. Oh dear. Did I mention I got kind of a late start? Maybe I can type faster…

3:03 p.m. There is a car right outside the window across from my table and sunlight is bouncing off the chrome directly into my eyes. Can’t seem to adjust my cap to block it (I know you’re sad that my life is so hard).

3:05 p.m. Have twisted myself around ridiculously to avoid incredibly bright light, but keep glancing up to see if it’s gone, cause I’m an idiot.

3:07 p.m. Right. Another 45 minutes.

3:57 p.m. 1200 words. Durn it. I honestly thought I was typing faster that time, too.

3:55 p.m. The charger for my android has an attachment that makes it a charger for my iPod. I think we can all agree that this is the best thing anyone has ever invented.

4:07 p.m. Guy at the condiments bar asked me about my $1 reusable cup. I told him about how if you buy 10 cups of coffee it pays for itself. He thought people using it should get free refills, and I told him about how you get free refills with the gold card. Then I told him how to get a gold card. By the end of the conversation I felt the need to clarity that I don’t work for Starbucks.

6:03 p.m. I’ve written about 4500 words so far today. It’s a lot but should be more. I think its time to get something to eat. The plan was to go next door to the salad place, or maybe Zankou chicken, but I’m worried that when I come back there won’t be any tables. Trying to decide if I should just eat something here, but I don’t like much of the real food they have. Plus, I’m sorry, but it’s sort of over priced, too.

6:58 p.m. Ended up leaving to get food. Have returned, fed (awful, but my fault for ordering the wrong things), and found a table. Not a great one; it’s by the door and its super cold out but whatever. It’s a table.

7:03 p.m. Just got back from getting my coffee to find two young teenagers sitting at my table. I pointed out my notebook was on the table, and they moved–luckily another table had just opened up. I’m feeling kind of rude, like maybe I should have taken the new table instead (and asked them to give me my notebook I guess?) but in the moment I was just really disconcerted. Its a very large, very bright red notebook. Normally I put my jacket on the chair as well as something on the table… it was just too cold to not wear it. Anyway, I’m feeling kind of bad about the whole thing.

7:25 p.m. Couple next to me having a half-joking argument. Woman just asked me to tell her boyfriend not to talk to her like that. I did, with no reservations. Jerk face.

7:30 p.m. Kind of regretting my “whatever it’s a table” line. It is absurdly cold by the door. So glad I brought fingerless gloves. Wish is also brought a blanket.

7:41 p.m. Darn it, earlier a guy with something really weird written on his shirt came in and I was going to mention it here but I didn’t want to stop working…and now I can’t remember what it was. Clearly my priorities are screwed up.

7:45 p.m. It might actually be so cold I have to leave.

8:50 p.m. Stuck it out for a while. Now at 6500 words for the day (not counting the 1000 I wrote here…), which means with what I’d already written I’m a third of the way through my current project. Was planning on walking home, but my lovely husband has offered to come get me.

7:35 p.m. Have come to Starbucks after work. Walked; The Husband is picking me up at closing time. The idea was that this way I’d absolutely have to get writing done because I wouldn’t be able to leave. Realized how stupid this was when I came in and found the place packed; there were literally no free chairs and it’s cooooold out. Went across the street to the drugstore and got a new compact which I genuinely needed, and when I came back I caught someone just as they were leaving. Will drive next time. There are other Starbucks around but none I want to walk to when its dark and cold out.

7:42 p.m. The amount of pride and self-satisfaction I feel when I don’t forget to bring my reusable cup is not at all in proportion to the achievement.

7:45 p.m. Sat down next to a table of pretty college girls just in time to hear “and he had to go to jail, but only for like six months, so that’s not that bad.” Really wish I could have heard the beginning and middle of that conversation.

7:50 p.m. When you log into the Starbucks wifi, the little “agree to our terms!” website states that it’s fifty degrees outside. I wish it would also tell the AC system, which is currently blasting cold air on my head.

8:10 p.m. Anyone using a speakerphone at Starbucks is an asshole. I feel comfortable making this blanket statement.

8:17 p.m. I wonder: if I tweeted about being at this particular Starbucks and it being freezing, would the Starbucks person in charge of reading twitter call them and tell them to turn off the AC? I guess I could just ask them to myself, but it might be awkward and I want the baristas to like me.

8:23 p.m. Goal for tonight is to figure out the entire plot of the third book in my vampire romance series. This means I need to remember what happened in the first two. Which is proving to be more difficult than is at all reasonable.

8:24 p.m. It pleases me that when I type “at” my phone asks if the next word is going to be Starbucks.

8:39 p.m. Just finished my first cup of coffee. I have written SO MUCH! Oh, unless we aren’t counting Facebook comments and this blog post, in which case I have written zero.

8:43 p.m. Oooh they have new salads.

8:44 p.m. While I was looking at the salads some guy cut if front of me. I didn’t start a fight but I could tell my glare stung.

8:45 p.m. It is at least fifteen degrees warmer at the counter than in the corner where my table is.

8:47 p.m. I finally asked if they could make it warmer in here and they said it’s all controlled by corporate. I have no idea if this is a colossal pile of bullshit or not. On the other hand the barrista remembered my order and I forgive anything when they do that.

8:51 p.m. As I turned away from picking up my refill, super creepy guy asked what I was drinking and when I said it was just decaf with soy, he said “oh, because it looks really special!” Ugh.

9:15 p.m. Chick at counter is asking for a venti cup of ice. They don’t want to give it to her (I’ve heard about this; I guess people get out of paying for an iced coffee by getting ice and brewed coffee and adding milk or something?)and she clearly thinks she’s going to flirt it out of them. Chick at counter is not nearly as cute or charming as she thinks.

9:16 p.m. Wow, it took less than a minute for that to turn nasty. Chick at counter just called barista an asshole. Now she’s making a huge deal of writing down all their names to complain about them. People behind counter could not care less about chick at counter.

9:40 p.m. The kid next to me is playing his music so loud I can hear it clearly coming from his earphones. I’m worried about his hearing, and also worried about how elderly I’ve apparently become.

10:20 p.m. I moved to a table that is not directly under a fan (place is clearing out). Just noticed a small puddle of water at the other side of the table from me. I know that if I do not wipe it up, there is about a 90% chance that something I have on the table (currently: iPod, phone, iPad, keyboard, keyboard case, spiral notebook) will end up wet and yet I just can’t quite get myself to stand up and walk the five feet to the condiment bar where the napkins are.

10:21 p.m. How do I have that much stuff?

10:50 p.m. Was getting nowhere with figuring out plot, so made a list of my goals for the next book, and the character’s goals as well (as in, one of my goals is to have some good fight scenes; one of Tess’s goals is to get the medicine to the people who need it, and one of the Senator’s goals is to not let anyone find out his horrible secret). It was remarkably effective. This is going to become a regularly-used technique for me I think.

10:58 p.m. It’s a shame I’m not currently writing a *ahem* “love scene,” because the guy sitting across from me right now is so breathtakingly handsome, it would just write itself.

10:59 p.m. I know it would be totally inappropriate to try to take this guy’s picture to post on my blog, OK? I’m not going to do it. Sheesh.

11:02 p.m. Table full of teenagers next to me getting up to leave. There was something extraordinarily sweet about the way one teenage boy asked another teenage boy if he’d remembered to get his charger.

Post navigation

Coffee shop etiquette. Things that drive me crazy in coffee shops. Things that help me write in coffee shops. All sorts of things.
I'm not affiliated with Starbucks, or any other place... I do write in Starbucks more than any other coffee shop, but that's because I get Starbucks cards as gifts fairly often.